lovely hair, Norah!

I just did a brief double take, then realized that she meant Nora.

I can't seem to keep up with Bitches anymore.

{{{Drew}}} I'm so sorry about your dad.

{{{everybody else}}} I'm not up-to-date but here's hugs for those that need them. I'm still hanging around the slower threads.

Just got home from the first half-day of the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, and I'm having a great time. I love these things because for just a few days I get to be 100% writer. It's revitalizing and identity-affirming, since I fight so hard to find time to write. It's never in the margins of my heart and soul, so it's wonderful even for a little while not to be forced to keep it in the margins of my life.

I just got back, and caught up. Drew, I'm very sorry. But it's good that you could be there, and your dad could be at home.

Yay for Susan's conference, and Yay for Nora's haircut.

{{{Sean}}}

I've skimmed to the end, apologies. Can't brane. Have the dumb. I finally caught up writing all of last week's feedback emails for the class I'm teaching (I can't believe I have six more weeks of writing those evil things) and replied to what felt like hundreds of emails that have been languishing in my inbox all week. I'm so very tired. I've been having trouble falling asleep every night, I'm so tired.

We drove up to Pasadena this afternoon to drop off one of the cars (I'd driven straight down from the airport when I got in a couple of days after Drew did, so we had both cars down there) do a couple of loads of laundry and re-pack. We're back out the door by 10 tomorrow morning to go back down to San Diego. I've driven over a thousand miles since last week. Oi. For good causes, obviously, not complaining. Just so very tired. Did I mention that?

So glad to be able to be here with Drew, though. Wouldn't trade that for anything. I don't know how much help I can really be, but at least I'm here.

Hugs to anyone who needs or wants them. You guys are the best.

I did not know of Dr Horrible's Sing A-long Blog until Just Now. Just Now!

Hee. Neither did the Girl--I showed it to her tonight!

AND, as we were talking of weekend plans, I mentioned people on the internet, and somehow mentioned Allyson's book, and she was like "OMG, I just bought that for a friend of mine! It's over there, on my counter!!" DUUUUUUUUDE!!! I was like "You have to read it! Before you give it to her!"

one of us! one of us!

I have a problem.

Last night when we were going home, I was carrying too much other stuff and Dylan was full of energy, so I let him crawl up the stairs himself instead of carrying him. Only on his way from the lobby to the stairwell, he got distracted by a ceramic planter and before I could grab him, he'd knocked it off its stand and onto the floor. Broken. I felt terrible, so I cleaned it up as much as I could (fortunately it was very small and the plants inside were all in plastic pots inside the ceramic so there wasn't any dirt to sweep up) and left a note apologizing and offering to pay for it if the owner (I didn't know who in the building owned it) would let me know the value.

So this morning there's a note in my mailbox saying "Please replace the planter. It was a gift."

Now, I obviously feel terrible about breaking it, and it is my responsibility to make ammends, but I have no idea how to go about replacing it. I don't own any houseplants, I've never gardened - I'm not even sure what this thing looked like before it broke. It was a ceramic tray with three ceramic square pots, maybe 18 inches long by about 4 inches wide? I know of one gardening store I can go to to see if they have anything like that, but for all I know it could have been brought back from Peru. Oh, and I'm leaving the country in 2 days. Argh.

That probably means the owner doesn't know how much the planter was, and would simply like another one. I'd look for something as similar as possible, and if you can't find anything, leave a note with maybe ... $30 in it, to cover the cost?

Look at the gardening store first, but you could also look online, and if you order something, just a leave a note that something will be coming soon.